Letter-box



R. G. WARD.

(No Model.)

LETTER BOX.

. Patented Mar. 11,1890.

W/TNESSES.' @i WM/y Arron/vir N, PETERS. Phnto-Liohugmpmr, washington. D. C,

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

RANDOLPH G. VARD, OF BALTIMORE, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO STEPHEN To all zo il'om it may concern: l

Be it known that I, RANDOLPH G. WARD,a citizen of the United States, residing at Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Street Letter-Boxes, of which the following is a clear and sufficient description,reference being had to the accompanying sheet of illustrations, forming part of the same.

The object of my invention is to provide a simple and economically constructed box which shall possess superior advantages over the boxes now in general use in protecting the mails therein deposited from the weather, and shall,primarily,also provide an absolute means of protection against the abstraction of mails once deposited therein, except by authorized agents with keys thereto. I accomplish these ends by the means and in the manner shown n the accompanying illustrations, in all the several figures of which like letters refer to like parts.

Figure 1 is a cross-section of my box, taken on a vertical line through its center, except as to the trap-doors e c, which, together with their geared segments or pinions e2 and stops e3, are shown in full. Fig. 2 is an elevation of my box on the same line of observation as Fig. 1. Fig. 2"L is a cross-section on the line a: of Fig. 2. Fig. 3 is the reversed side of the sliding door which covers the orifice through which the mail is deposited. Fig. 4. is a plan of the trap-doors c e enlarged. Fig. 5 is a section of the trap-doors e c, showing the geared pinion end enlarged.

In describing my invention, c represents the main shell of the box, which is made, preferably, of one piece, as shown, having a depending basin-shaped bottom a', surrounded by an overhanging water drip or shed a2, and having upon its edge suitable slides a3 to accommodate the door for discharging the mails, and the pivot-lugs a4, into which is ixed the hasp a5. The cap b rests suitably, as shown, upon and over the box a, being provided upon its inner side with the downwardly-depending iian ges or 'Webs ZJ', to whose lower extremities are pivoted the trap-doors, hereinafter more fully described.

c is an ordinary sliding door working in the overhanging slides a3 of the shell a, and held DANDRIDGE KENNEDY, OF ANN APOLIS, MARYLAND.

LETTER-BOX.

"t, SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 423,007, dated March 11, 1890.

tm Application tiled May 24, 1889. Serial No. 311,943. (No model.)

up imposition when locked by means of an ordinary staple and the hasp ai, hinged to the lugs d4 of the frame or shell ci.

0l is also a sliding door working upwardly in closing the orifice, through which mail is deposited in guides or slides suitably fixed into the cap l).

cl2 is an ordinary thumb-pull attached to .the outside of the door d, by which it is pulled 6o down to deposit mail. 0

d d are partial geared racks on the inside of the door d, which, in connection with the geared pinions e2 of the trap-doors e, cause the trap-doors c to assume the positions 1n 65 dicated as e, when access to the box from without is attained.

The operation of my box is as follows: 'Ihe hand is placed upon the pull cl2, depressing the door d sufficiently to leave the ordinary 7c horizontal orilice through which a deposit is made open and accessible simultaneously with the depression of the door d by the hand upon the thumb-pull cl2. The racks CZ of the door d gear into and operate the pinions c2 75 of the trap-doors e, causing them to assume a horizont-al position at right angles to and covering the whole space between the de' pending anges b of the cap b, thus maltmg a separate compartment Within the cap, into 8o which the deposit is made, the doors e debarring all access to the box a so long as the door cl is open. The hand is then removed and the weight of the doors c causes them to descend, depositing the mail securely in the main chamber of the box a, and simultaneously closing,bya reversed action of the pinions @2 and the racks cl', the door CZ.

What I claim as new is- 1. The combination7 in a letter-box having 9o a sliding door held in an upward position by an overhanging hasp, of a basin-shaped bottom depending therefrom surrounded by a drip shed or edge lower than the bottom of the door, substantially as and for the pur- 4 poses described.

2. The combination, in a letter-box having a sliding' door held upwardly by an overhanging hasp and a'basinshaped bottom surrounded by a drip shed or edge lower than the bottom roo of the door, of a cap or cover fitted upon and extending over the box having downwardly- 'depending anges or Webs upon the inner side provided with movable traps or doors at their lower extremities, substantially as and for the purposes speciiied.

3. The combination, in a mail-box having a cap or cover upon the inside of which is xed the movable doors or traps e, havin g the geared pinions e2, of the sliding door d and the racks d', substantially as and for the purposes specified.

4E. The combination, in a mail-box having a horizontal orifice in the side of the cap or cover, of the vertically-sliding door covering said orifice when closed and gearing into and operating a mechanism cutting off access I5 name, this 22d day of January, 1889, in preso` ence of two Witnesses.

R. G. WARD.

Witnesses:

A. W. DAvIs, T. L. MCAVOY. 

